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Ledan
This roleplay character belongs to Grace King (tumblr) and can be found here. Ledan (Elder Futhark: ᛚᛖᛞᚨᚾ, currently going by Ledan “Leda" John Hale) is an archangel/human hybrid, sometimes known as an "Archnephilim" (a phrase coined by Dean) and a witch, known or at least believed to be one of the only ones of his kind, maybe even the only one. He uses his witchcraft and contacts to do spells (and otherwise help people) on demand and help people with other issues, occasionally for money (usually in the case of wealthier clients) but mainly he’ll do it for a nondescript favour (which you’ll be bound to) that can be called in at any time. He was born in 339BC, in a village called Åkegthveit in Sweden during the early Iron Age, and grew up believing, in his early years, he was an average human. However, he is the son of the archangel Jophiel (who died when he was just two) and a powerful witch called Thyrvï; making him very much not. He believed this because his powers are taking time to manifest, and even when they did, in the beginning they were relatively harmless. It was only as an adult he started to come into his more potent powers, only gaining the ability to heal himself at the age of around 32, which also caused him to stop ageing. He married a woman called Ásta, with whom he had several children; Cenríkr, Ælfríkr, Sigríðr, Mæja and Rúni, only two of whom reached the at which they also stopped ageing or their ageing slowed, and had several children of their own, Leda's grandchildren. As a type being not created by god he is considered by most angels to be an abomination, as a type of being not created by god is considered a blasphemy, and thus are hunted. This was true for Leda for the majority of his life. Due to his mix of Archangel and Human he is probably at least on his way to being as powerful as an archangel, if not eventually more, but is still (even after 2,354 years) in the stage of developing his powers fully. However, due to the hex that was recently placed on him, he's currently able to use a limited amount of power at a time; causing him to become weakened after prolonged use of the powers he has through his father's (his archangel) side, with it also weakening him generally over time. This has seemingly not affected his ability to cast spells, however, and so he's still been able to continue his day-to-day business for the most part. Though, due to its ever increasing severity, they're looking for a way to solve the issue. Ledan has six cats, all of whom he adores. While he's a been a vegetarian for several decades, though he obviously was not always, he is both good at and enjoys cooking. It's suggested his high skill in cooking could be partly due to it requiring similar skills to magic, which he also, as well as excelling at, very clearly enjoys or at least takes pride in. He appears to be quite sentimental, as he keeps things he likes or treasures from time to time; meaning that at this point he has what could be described as a mini-museum of ancient/antique, but mostly otherwise valueless, items in his attic and basement of his home in Fleetwood, Vermont. Most notably, he has kept various vintage cars and motorbikes, which he enjoys keeping in as perfect order as possible. Leda has his father's archangel blade, which was given to him when he was just seven, as both an heirloom of sorts and a way to defend himself from angels. He rarely entrusts it or its location to anyone, as he'll only let someone who he trusts completely and absolutely anywhere near the thing, as it's the only thing which can kill him (easily anyway). Biography Early Life arms|230px]]Ledan (Elder Futhark: ᛚᛖᛞᚨᚾ) was born to Thyrvï (a witch) and Jophiel (an archangel) in the village of Åkegthveit on the 28th October in (worked out by its closeness to the festival of Vetrnætr Blake, M. (2011). About Vetrnætr. (Last accessed 14th Nov 2014), a festival of three days that celebrated the end of summer, the start of winter) 339BC, a date which he must have worked out when the Gregorian calendar caught on. Though, as a result of his archangel father, he was an "archnephilim", he was raised as if he were a normal child, with his true nature kept from him. This was made particularly possible by the fact that, unfortunately, his father was killed before his third birthday, and he never got to know the man. To Ledan growing up, Jophiel was just the absent father who had died when he was very young. Leda's powers didn't start to show for a long while either, in his early years he appeared just like any other child. He was taught like any other child how to fight with swords, bows, knives, the like and, from a very young age, he begun to help his mother with her work, despite the fact that magic was considered a feminine practice by the society of then Ward, C. (Unknown). Women and Magic in the Sagas: Seiðr and Spá. (Last accessed 14th Nov 2014) McCoy, D. (2012). Seiðr. (Last accessed 14th Nov 2014) Mitchell, S A (2010). Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages. (1st ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 384 pages). At the time, his mother used her magic to act as the village's healer, though her magic could obviously go far beyond this, all the while Leda was taught the reins of his mother's craft. Leda showed extreme promise in the magic department, possibly due to him being a nephilim, steadily learning all he needed to act as a somewhat of an assistant by the age of seven. His involvement in his mothers "business" made him somewhat of an outcast, as the kids his age all either helped their parents with farming or hunting or other such similar and more mundane occupations. That, and his mother was considered to be somewhat crazy by the village as a whole, who were sceptical about her knack from healing coming from actual seiðr as most believed all it was old wives tales and superstition taken to extremes. Ledan also had earned the social stigma attached to boys and men learning magic. Manifesting His Powers Ledan first began to come into his powers at around age seven, where he found himself able to move small objects with his mind as well as move or affect larger ones when he was angry or scared (usually breaking/destroying them). He kept this a secret from Thyrvï for as long as he could, as he believed she, even as a witch, would think he was some kind of monster. However, when Thyrvï found out about his powers, after an argument they had, during which his powers made themselves known, she explained to him that his father had not been human; though she didn't tell him exactly what or who he was until later. Leda couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed with his mother for keeping this from him and letting him think that he was alone or that she was going to hate him when she found out about his powers or something, when actually she knew all along this was probably going to happen to him. Ledan thus saw it as a somewhat of a betrayal on Thyrvï's part. However, as his mother continued to help him hide his powers from the rest of the residents of the village, he convinced himself that she had only been trying to help him in some way and got over these feelings, valuing his close relationship with Thyrvï even then. He continued to steadily develop his powers over the years with his mother's help, taking advantage of the fact he and Thyrvï lived relatively far outside of the main village, due to her profession to hide them from the other villagers. He slowly learnt how to control his powers so they didn't flare up when he was in a bad mood or emotional from practice. However, further rumours about him spread, and the fact he had come to live in such solitude had made his social standing that much worse. He was considered strange by most of his same-age peers, most of whom avoided him like the plague because of it. His only actual friends as a child were Ásta, her brother Abjǫrn, whose mother had been healed from a fever by Leda's mother, and another boy called Folke whose mother was friends with Thyrvï. The four often played in the forests near and around the village together. He accidentally used his powers during a play fight in the forest at one point, which led to him having to ask his friends to keep his secret. Adulthood Price, N (Prof.). (2012). Life and Afterlife: Dealing with the Dead in the Viking Age. (Last accessed 14th Nov 2014) (Not exactly relevant, but very interesting presentation, and I used some ideas from this) Price, N (Prof.). (2012). The Shape of the Soul: The Viking Mind and the Individual. (Last accessed 14th Nov 2014) (Not exactly relevant, but very interesting presentation, and I used some ideas from this) By the age of around 15, Ledan was considered and treated as a full adult, having been treated as a small adult all of his 'childhood' anyway.Short, W R. (1999). Families and Demographics in the Viking Age. (Last accessed 28th Dec 2014) (excerpt: The age of majority is not clearly defined, but by the time a boy was 16 years old, he was expected to take on all the roles of an adult male in Viking society. Even younger children took on some adult responsibilities. In order to qualify to be a judge in court, a man need be only 12 years old. Although children were excused from attacks and battles and permitted to leave before a fight began, some young children initiated lethal revenge attacks.) He later fell in love with and married his childhood friend Ásta, with whom he travelled to a few villages over to start his own version of his mother's business, where someone was needed to heal the sick. The two had their first son, Cenríkr, when he was 18 and she was around 19 or 20 their second, Ælfríkr, two years later as well as several other children; Sigríðr, Mæja and Rúni over the years. In their new village Leda managed to gain the respect he lacked in their home village, despite the stigma that was still very much attached to the practice of magic for men, possibly due to his relatively personable nature, as well as the fact it was clear the magic he practised was not simply 'old wives tales' and superstition as many people and witnessed it working for themselves. Leda continued to develop his powers from his father's side throughout his adulthood, manifesting powers allowing him to emit light and generate fire among other things and steadily improve on the powers he'd developed as a child. He also begun to develop a resistance to diseases and his wounds would often heal a lot quicker. However it wasn't until his early to mid thirties that his wounds begun to heal instantly and his ageing slowed and, eventually, stopped completely. Though this seemed cool to Leda for about five minutes it soon sank in that this likely meant that he'd vastly outlive most of the people he loved, including his own children. Leda of course worked at the magic he was taught by his mother, getting better and better at it with the hopes of being able to help to heal more people from many different afflictions. Though by no means could he save every person who came to him or was brought to him. He'd often take in sick animals; such as dogs, cats, squirrels and such in order to bring up his experience with certain methods with various levels success. Shortly after the birth of their youngest son, Rúni, during a particularly hash winter; the village they were living in was raided out of desperation by people from a settlement further north, whose crops had failed and who had been running out of food. Ásta was stabbed in the chest while trying to stop them from taking their food, as she was scared that they wouldn't find any more and children would starve. Though she managed to fend them off, and they had later come to their own grizzly ends, Ásta's wound (though seeming initially not to be fatal) was later discovered to have gotten badly infected, and though Leda did his best to try to heal it, he failed and Ásta died. Losing His Family Though Leda was devastated by the loss, he endeavoured to stay strong for his children, as they were obviously greatly affected by it too. He had trouble for a long time with not blaming himself for not noticing the infection when it wasn't too late to begin with, and also failing to heal her when it eventually did become obvious and therefore already untreatable. Leda just about managed to keep the family afloat with the resources he was able to get continuing with his healing, this and in the months after Ásta's death, his fellow villagers helped him when they could, as he'd always helped them in the past when they'd needed it. Two years later, when the family was just getting more-or-less fully on its feet, and though he still missed Ásta greatly, Leda was almost his old self. He attended the community gatherings again and trying to get out of his rut and more into a happier life with his friends and family. Cenríkr, his eldest son, was almost old enough to leave home at this point. Cenríkr was looking forward to it, he'd be able to make his own way in life, and he'd already fallen in love with a young woman called Ingríðr. While Leda was happy about this he couldn't help having a natural worry for his son. It was around this time that a sickness travelled though the village. It happened from time to time; and back then, with the limited knowledge of how sickness works, they had no real recourse to stop them spreading. While usually, due to the fact he lived further away than most from the main town, and he was the healer, his family had come out of the previous ones okay. However, this time they were not so lucky. While he attempted to do his job, heal his fellow villagers, his elder daughter fell ill with the sickness, as did his infant son soon after. , suffering from a fever.]]Though Leda tried his best to save their lives, it proved too difficult in the end. He'd had half the town in to care for and, while he couldn't help but prioritise his own children, there was little he could do for anyone other than try to give them a fighting chance with the basic medicine he had and pray that they made it. However, this not being very good medical practice, it didn't do much good at all. While some of the younger villagers made it through the fever, most did not. This included Ledan's two children, Sigríðr and Rúni, who both passed away from the fever at different points in their second night after first showing symptoms. This of course devastated Leda, though this time he resolved to stay stronger this time for his children. He went ahead with helping his eldest son to marry and leave home, and trying to help his younger daughter, Mæja, with her own slightly unconventional pursuits. He tried to appear okay, and it appeared he held up well outwardly. However, underneath it all, he was struggling. He pushed on, nonetheless, managing to get enough money from healing minor ailments and injuries to help his eldest son start his life with Ingríðr in a nearby home. , wounded.]] Ledan went on in his usual routine for several more years, as his younger son Ælfríkr became more and more "adventurous". While this was completely normal for children his and even Mæja's age, since they were considered to be close to adults in their society (somewhat like a late teenager), the general rule was not to stray too far from the village and to stick together. This was so that if something were to happen an adult would be close and could come to their assistance, and so as not to encroach on wolves' territories. Unfortunately, Ælfríkr, did not listen and slipped away beyond the nearby river, and ended up being attacked. He survived long enough for someone to hear and find him before bringing him back to town. Leda went to see what was happening and had to fight his way to see his son only to get to say a few words of reassurance to him before he inevitably succumbed to his wounds. After losing another member of his family, Ledan decided it was best to move on. Especially since it was becoming acutely apparent he'd stopped ageing the way his fellow villagers were. He couldn't bear life in the village any more as the good memories there were marred by the bad. Since Mæja was old enough to come with him in his mind, and Cenríkr had moved on as was living his own life with Ingríðr, Ledan decided to leave the village with his daughter after several months; allowing his eldest child the chance to take over the job he'd always done. Perhaps he wanted to run from all that had happened, but the way Ledan saw it he was giving his son a chance to do well. He returned, of course, every now and again to visit his son, later his grandchildren, and offer him advice he'd picked up from his time as the village's healer. Travelling Scandinavia Ledan soon left to travel the area with his surviving daughter, Mæja, who, while she was almost an 'adult' by the society's standards, he was still fiercely protective over. While he had concern for his son, it wasn't the same, Cenríkr fit in a lot better than even Ledan had, so he had no reservations that he could cope with independent life. He'd considered staying until she was old enough to leave home herself, however she expressed a desire to go with him; and as long as she was happy with going with him, and vice versa he saw no reason why she shouldn't. Being a rather adventurous young woman, it would probably be more fun for her, and Ledan had always been apprehensive she'd be forced into a boring life she never wanted to end up with. Ledan recognised her problems with not fitting in all too well, after all, his decision to remain in the same business as his mother led to a great deal of scorn towards him initially. While his son was technically in the same predicament, the village Ledan had raised them was acclimatised to a male healer. Worried as he was, he also knew he'd have been miserable doing anything else. Over the course of the years, Ledan used the fact he was moving around to occasionally visit his mother as well as his son and grandchildren without much of a risk of his lack of ageing being discovered. This went on for a while, but became less frequent when Ledan found out about the way in which his mother wished to prevent her ageing. His discovery of what she'd either already been doing or was planning to do caused a massive argument between himself and his mother. This led to Ledan refusing to visit Thyrvï for a long while, visiting only his son and his children from then on, in the hopes of it persuading her out of it. Ledan and Mæja travelled the area (now known as Scandinavia) Ledan developing and expanding his (already pretty decent) knowledge and skill with magic and Mæja enjoying the freedom and sense of adventure that came from not staying in one place for long. Eventually, however, Mæja decided to go her own way and have her own intrepid adventures. By this time Ledan obviously wasn't surprised, and wasn't exceptionally concerned, as he knew from their time on the road she was able to handle herself. He'd taken her with him because he'd known she'd love this lifestyle, and that she would feel like an outsider if he didn't, and he was just glad he'd made the right call. At some point Mæja met a and fell for man called Magni, who she then married. Concerned as he often was about his youngest daughter, she was an adult now, and Ledan was pleased to see she was happy. Attacks from Angels As Ledan's powers begun to grow, what he truly was became increasingly plain to other angelic beings on sight, and with that came and inordinate amount of danger. Until this point, he'd been pretty much unaware of the extent of the danger he faced from angels; having never met one until this point, keeping his head down had worked fine. Now, however, angels could sense him. With the lies becoming more preposterous by the year, it was for this reason he decided to go to his mother to see if his father had said anything about how he could defend himself. By this time it had been several years since he'd talked to his mother, their fight having left them on bad terms. So showing up at her door again had been awkward, to say the least. Dispite his worries, however, she invited him in with open arms (or as open arms as she is prone to), despite her usual demeanour Thyrvï loved her son, and had missed him. She told him about several sigils she'd remembered that Jophiel had shown her which hid angels from other angels, and the two of them tried to work out how to use them to protect him. Their solution ended up being amulets with the sigil carved onto them. he and Thyrvï made a couple for Leda (in case one broke or got lost and a few each for Cenríkr and Mæja. This did them well over the years, as it prevented angels from tracking them just by seeing their powers, making it only a risk that an angel might see them use their powers or hear about the man or woman who apparently doesn't age. It was only that level of it that they had to worry about now; which, while not perfect, was a gigantic weight off of Leda's shoulders, not only because he was safer, his children were too. Leaving Scandinavia Over the years it stayed much the same, him adventuring, his son working as he had as the village healer and his daughter off on her own adventures. Over the years his family grew, with both of his surviving children having a few children of their own. Old as it made him feel, Leda was pleased to be a grandfather. Since it'd made even Mæja and her husband settle down for a bit, it made him visit home even more than usual just to see them all. However, while Mæja, much like her father, stopped ageing in her mid thirties, Cenríkr's ageing merely slowed. It got to the point that one day, despite being over 100, his body couldn't take it any more, and he began to fall ill. As he visited often, Leda was able to see him in time to be there for him as eventually, despite Leda's attempts to heal him, he passed away at the age of 135. Leda was, of course, devastated, however he was glad that he'd lived such a long, full life; having had two children (as well as several grandchildren) of his own by this time. It was more than he could say about the others, after all. Yet still, he took it hard, naturally. It was this death that inspired him to look further than Scandinavia, where he'd been always lived. Again, perhaps he'd been running away or perhaps he wanted to do more, but he decided that that was what was best for him. He started by travelling the rest of Europe, Athens, Rome, everywhere he could get to; to places which seemed like whole other worlds to Ledan. At first it seemed overwhelming to him (naturally, he'd lived in the same general area for so long) but it quickly became simply exciting. He tried his bes to blend in, starting off terrible at it but slowly learning how to make himself stand out less. Eventually it begun to come as naturally as acclimatising to a new village back in Scandinavia, which by this time was almost just as alien to him as anywhere. All the while, the attacks from angels still went on, just infrequently now he could make the carved amulets. With an apparent level of destabilisation in heaven, a lot of angels seemed to be falling these days; which meant a few more nephilim. They weren't exactly like Leda, their parents tended to be seraphim. Despite this, it was good to see, and Leda liked to pass on amulets to them if he could. During this time the angels, obviously, spent more time looking for the nephilim; after all, they were abominations, and the angels had clear instructions on what they had to do about them. It was during this time that Mæja met her end. She was back on the road now, her husband and own children having grown old as Cenríkr had, similarly with Ledan, the adventure was all she had. At some point on this path, Mæja had a run-in with an angel while trying to help a young nephilim in what would be southern Norway now. She was caught off-guard and tragically killed. Ledan didn't find out about this for a fair while, until she didn't show up to the next place they planned to meet. He only discovered her fate a few months later as he went to investigate. His younger daughter's death hit him differently to the others, for one by this time it's been nearly 300 years since she was born and she'd been all he had left, but on the other hand he was proud she'd tried to help the young nephilim, even if it led to her dying, he knew that that was and incredibly Mæja thing to do. Despite this he was still devistated to lose yet another child. Intervening Years During the intervening years Leda expanded his travels, he wanted to travel the world; while places such as Australia and the Americas hadn't yet been discovered as far as Europe was concerned, he wanted to see all the world he knew. He spent a lot of the earlier years in southern Europe, specifically Rome. 19th Century 20th Century During the 20th century, Ledan spent most of the time in staying in Britain, having come to like the place. He spent a small amount of time keeping to London, before moving down to Swansea, as he heard about a thriving magic community in the area. He took on a new alias, as usual, this time calling himself "Ledan Åke Sörenson" in official records, so as not to arouse suspicion. It was here, during the 1930s and 1940s, he met Luna Gray, a young and especially talented witch (for her years anyway), who helped her mother to sell magical supplies and potions in secret in central Swansea. This was how he met her, considering he needed to restock on magical supplies quite a lot, living in a big city. At gatherings he came to know Luna well, sparking up common ground in an interest in spells that revolved around the removal of curses and hexes. Before they knew it the two had sparked up a romantic relationship. This was complicated, however, after the beginning of the Second World War. Pre-series ''Supernatural'' Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 Season 8 Season 9 Season 10 Season 11 Name Ledan '(pronounced ''Lee-dun li:dɑn) , originally written ᛚᛖᛞᚨᚾ (Elder Futhark), comes form words from Leda's own language, Ancient Nordic ('Heimámál') meaning 'to guide/go' or 'beacon', as it was common to name children after some form of strength or power. The word in question very helped form the word 'lead' over time in English, it's possible his mother made up the name. An awkward by-product of this is that his name happens to mean boredom ''in modern Swedish, the current language of his homeland. This and his nickname Leda is occasionally confused with the name of Greek mythological character, Leda; which is usually pronounced slightly differently than his nickname (usually pronounced ''Lay-duh leɪːdə. Both, however, have nothing to do with his name. Trivia *Leda speaks with a very slight accent. **when alone at home, or when speaking with his family, it's noticeably more pronounced. *His favourite colour is purple, dark purple. *Ledan is a fan of single malt scotch whisky, and appears to have collected a lot of bottles over his many years, some gifts and some presumably purchased. **He'll usually order Chivas Regal at bars, simply because it's his favourite that most bars sell. *He is terrible at dancing, which is the subject of many jokes among his friends. Ledan doesn't seem to take offence to this and often chimes in with his own jokes. He has explained that he dances 'exactly' like "a dad at a BBQ". *Leda is a vegetarian (though he obviously hasn't always been). *Leda is an amazing cook, this is as a result of years and years of practising magic, which (his kind at least) uses mostly the same skills as cooking, especially since cooking is a hobby of his. *Leda gets into many of the holidays brought over from pagan traditions. He's particularly fond of Halloween and Christmas and will decorate his house enthusiastically. *Ledan can speak a fair few languages, however these were all picked up by either places he's been (i.e Ancient Rome) or the dominant language of the time, due to necessity (his own language was, after all, pretty rarely spoken as it was). **For this reason, he's currently trying to learn Mandarin (but is so far shit at it). *He has 6 cats; Leífr (sometimes 'Lítð Lynx', male), Freja (female), Hildr (female), Leífi (male), Mær (female) and Fróði (male, kitten). All of whom he adores. *Leda speaks in his first language (Ancient Nordic) when not around his clients as this is how he talks to his cats and he uses it to label all of his ingredients. *Leda likes Norse mythology/things with Norse mythology in them; he finds it nostalgic. *Leda is fond of and had has many vintage cars and motorbikes, he's particularly fond of 50s British motorbikes; he has: **A BSA Golden Flash **A Norton Commando Frostback **A 1950 Ariel Red Hunter **A 1957 Triumph Thunderbird **A 1959 Cadillac Eldorado, convertible (blue) **A 1959 Chevrolet Impala, convertible (red) *Leda is quite sentimental, he keeps things he likes from time to time meaning that he has what could be described as a mini-museum of ancient/antique but mostly otherwise valueless items in his attic. *Leda is the oldest character on-show with a full, stated, exact age (it has been mentioned that he celebrated his 2,354th birthday on the 28th of October this year). However there are many far older beings around, their exact age is just never specified. References *'''NOTE 1: Since I could find research for the magic (among other things) of a lot later in Scandinavian history, I have based my research on that, assuming that attitudes were similar, though the only research I could find suggests that attitudes were probably slightly less melodramatic. I have based related aspects of the biography on this. This is since we don't know much about this period of history. 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